"Mommy?"

          Adrien tried to shake his mother awake, but to his dismay, her eyes remained closed.

         It was a cold and dark night, and Adrien has been sleeping in the big bed he shared with his mother. The sudden sounds of rain and thunder had woken him up. The wind howled painfully as rain pounded on the roof like drummers warning that something was going to happen. Adrien jumped in fear when a monstrous boom of thunder shook the walls of the house. 

         He hid under the covers until the terrifying sound had resided, before pushing the blanket away and grabbing his mother's hand. 

      "Mommy, please wake up."

      She still didn't respond. Her body was stiff and unmoving, and with every second Adrien could feel her hand becoming more and more colder in his.

       A horrible wave of dread washed over the scared little 4-year-old.

      Something was wrong.

      Something was very wrong. 

      Why wasn't she getting up? She had always woken up before. She would always get up whenever Adrien needed her, whenever he was afraid. She would always kiss and hug him tight, and tell him that the storm would pass and everything would be okay.

      But as Adrien tried yet again to wake his mother up, she still did not respond to his pleas. Fresh tears began to stream down his cheeks.

    "Mommy..." he wept, "Mommy, I'm so scared. Please wake up. Please. I don't want to be scared anymore. I don't want to be alone."

    As the rain poured harder, Adrien's sobs grew louder. He desperately tried to think of the reasons why his mother didn't answer him. Maybe he had done something wrong. Maybe he had done something bad to upset her. Hadn't he eaten the last piece of bread without asking her first? She was probably mad that he didn't save her any when both of them were so hungry.

   "Mommy, I'm sorry," he told her with a sniff. "I won't ever eat by myself anymore. I'll always save my food for you, I promise. Just please get up."

     As he expected, she still didn't move. 

    Another boom of thunder shook the house, making Adrien scream and hide back under the blanket again. His heart pounded against his chest as he listened to the frightening cackle of lighting. He placed his hands above his ears and cried again as he wished for this nightmare to end. He wished that he could be brave and know what to do. 

       And he wished that his mommy could wake up and tell him that everything will be okay like she always did. 

     Suddenly, he remember something. His father had left a few weeks ago to go find food and wood for a fire. Adrien could go find him and bring him back home. Maybe his dad could wake his mommy up, and everything could be okay again.

     Adrien tried to shake the idea out of his head. He couldn't leave now. What about the scary storm that won't go away? And how could he leave his mother all alone?

    But as he pulled the covers away and looked at his mother's silent body once more, he knew he had to do something. 

   Otherwise, his mommy will stay asleep forever.

   Adrien sniffed again and wiped his tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. He felt a sudden urge of determination rising within him as he placed a gentle kiss on his mother's forehead.

  "Don't worry, Mommy. I'll be right back."

    Adrien tucked the blanket around her so that she would stay warm while he was away. Then, he climbed out of bed and changed into the only shirt and pair of trousers that he owned. He then slipped on his ragged shoes. 

    When he was finally ready, he reached up and grabbed the handle of the front door and pulled it open, immediately feeling the angry wind and pouring rain rush into the house. 

   He took a deep breath, clasped both hand over his ears, and ran outside.

   He tried not to think of the next boom of thunder or crack of lightning that was sure to scare him.

     He tried not to think of the rain completely soaking him or the cold that seeped into his skin and made him shiver.

    Instead, he focused his mind the road ahead of him...the same road he had seen his father go down when he had left Adrien and his mother behind.

But oh, how cold it was. 

       Adrien hugged his knees to his chest as he sat on the roof of the Cesaire Book Store and Printing Inc., waiting for the unpleasant memory to fade from his mind. His eyes focused on the evening sun slowly dipping into the horizon as it lit up the sky with shades of gold, orange, and pink. 

       Adrien usually climbed onto the roof whenever painful reminders of his past clouded his brain. What he hated about them was they would come without warning...forcing him to re-live the many awful moments he wished he had never experienced.

     But what he hated most about them was that he had to fight off all those memories alone.

     Adrien clenched his teeth and fought back tears as the memory of him pleading his mother to wake up replayed in his head. He could still hear and feel the thunder shaking the ground under his feet. He could still hear the endless pouring of rain.

      Come on, think of something else, he desperately urged himself. Just think about anything else.

      Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Finally, Marinette's face appeared in his mind. With a smile and a sigh of relief, Adrien opened his eyes again. 

      "Dude, are you still up here?"

      Adrien turned around to find Nino climbing up the ladder that was leaning against the side of the building. When he finally made it up, Nino carefully made his way to Adrien before slowly lowered himself down to sit.

      He was never really a fan of heights...something that Adrien would always tease him for whenever he had the opportunity. 

      "Yeah, just had to clear my head a little," Adrien said as he turned to gaze at the sun once more.

      Nino shook his head. "I'm really thinking about pushing you off one day, just for making me climb up here."

      "Oh yeah?" Adrien smirked. "What makes you think I won't climb back up to push you off too?"

      "I would love to see you try to climb back up here without being strangled by Alya first," snorted Nino.

      "And I would love to see you try to explain to Marinette why you pushed her boyfriend off a roof. I'm sure she would be dying to hear all about it," Adrien snorted back. 

     The two boys bursted out laughing. 

    "Fine, I guess I won't push you off," said Nino as he casted Adrien a sideway glance. "For now."

    "Then I guess I won't push you off either. For now."

    "Anyways, you excited to go to the ball tomorrow?"

     Adrien frowned. "Not really."

     Nino laughed. "I'm not either, but it's not everyday that you get to eat food made by the royal chef himself."

    "I'm literally only going because Marinette asked me to," said Adrien. "Otherwise I'd just chill and take an extra long cat nap. You know I'm not exactly a fan of those fancy palace parties."

   "Yeah, yeah I know. Oh, and Alya and her mom made us some suits to wear too."

    Adrien scrunched up his nose. "Fantastic."

    "It might not be that bad, bro," Nino shrugged.

    "Sure, if 'not bad' means that I'm going to spend the entire night suffocating in a fancy new outfit and clanking tea cups with royal officials with my pinky up."

     Adrien pretended to hold an imaginary tea cup in his hand with his pinky up. "Oh, how pleasant-tea wonderful!"

   Nino rolled his eyes. "That pun was terrible, dude."

  "Marinette would've like it," Adrien sniffed, pretending to be hurt. 

   Suddenly, Adrien noticed how the sky was darkening with large gray clouds. The atmosphere suddenly shifted from peaceful to anxious, and the breeze that had been sweeping over the village suddenly became stronger. 

  Adrien stood up. "Come on, Nino. Let's go inside," he said. "Looks like a storm is coming."